Secular Café: Does Religious Liberty Equal Freedom to Discriminate?

Secular Café Discuss atheism, religious apologetics, separation of church & state, theology, comparative religion and scripture.

Does Religious Liberty Equal Freedom to Discriminate? Jun 5th 2012, 18:25 Quote: Does Religious Liberty Equal Freedom to Discriminate? Posted: 05/29/2012 3:27 pm I happened to leave the country on the day that President Obama made his historical statement that he was in favor of same-sex marriage. I had expected his statement to ruffle feathers from those who found such partnerships difficult to reconcile with their religious beliefs, but I arrived back to find that the resulting outcry was completely counter-intuitive. I had expected that some people might condemn him for a flawed morality. Instead, I found that the offensive was based on the argument that his defense of same-sex marriage represented an attack on religious liberty. Maybe it is just because when visiting other developed countries it is sometimes easy to forget how it is possible that religious discussion can permeate politics as deeply as it does in the U.S., but nevertheless it seemed unfathomable to me that the president's statement that we should grant some additional rights to some individuals represented an attack on the liberty of others. After all his statement was about the right to marry, which is a secular legal issue. Even if the state were to recognize same-sex marriages, churches, mosques or synagogues or other places of worship would not be required to hold wedding ceremonies within them or sanction such marriages because the no legal standing is attributed to such ceremonies or sanctions. Where is the attack on liberty? Soon after that it turned out that many Catholic organizations raised an outcry when Katherine Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary and a practicing Catholic, was invited to speak at the Georgetown University graduation ceremony. Many senior officials, including the Cardinal of Washington wanted the invitation revoked simply because Sebelius fought to get insurance coverage for women using contraceptives. And this week, the Virginia House killed the appointment of a qualified judicial nominee... because he is gay! All of these developments suggest that the banner of 'religious liberty' is effectively more akin to the 'right to discriminate.' For the state to treat organized religious groups differently than it does other organizations implies special rights for these groups to behave differently than others. But this requires such religious groups to determine who is in the "in' group, and who is in the 'out' group, and because religious doctrine guides moral behavior, it provides an opportunity for members of the group to condemn the behavior of those not in the group. ..... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawren...b_1553678.html

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